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DECEMBER, 1885.]
A SILVER COIN OF RUDRASIMHA.
Obverse.
A SILVER COIN OF RUDRASIMHA. BY J. F. FLEET, BO.C.S., M.R.A.S., C.I.E.
the original coin, of which a litho
graph is published herewith, to the kind-. ness of Major F. H. Jackson, of the Staff Corps. It was obtained by him in Kathiawâd, and, with three others of the same class, was utilised to form sleeve-links, from which he detached this one at my request.
Reverse.
The coin seems to be of fairly good silver, and weighs as nearly as possible 34 grains.
The obverse has a very well executed king's head, of the type customary in the class of coins to which this specimen belongs,-looking to the proper left; with a moustache; with the hair either bound round with a fillet, or confined under a close-fitting and bordered cap on the top of the head, and then hanging down loosely behind the neck; and with a necklet or collar round the throat. In front of the face, there is an unintelligible and probably meaningless legend in what are usually considered to be an imitation of Greek characters; eleven of them are entire; and there are parts of three more, which fell partially beyond the edge of the coin when it was struck. Behind the head,-in the place where the coins of this class usually have the word varshé, "in the year," followed by numerical symbols, there are traces of a legend; but almost the whole of it fell beyond the edge of the coin; so that it is quite impossible to say what the date may have been.
The reverse had in the centre the usual chaitya symbol; but this, together with either a cluster of stars or the sun, slightly to the proper left above it, was destroyed in adapting the coin to the sleeve-link. The crescent moon, however, remained uninjured, slightly to the proper right above the chaitya. Round these central emblems, and inside a circle of dots, there is a marginal legend, in the usual charac
325
ters of the coins of this class, and in a state of excellent preservation, except that, from the third to the ninth aksharas, the upper parts of the letters fell beyond the edge of the coin. The legend, which reads from the inside, and commençes just above the crescent moon, isRajña mahakshatrapasa Rudradamna putrasa rajña mahakshatrapasa R[u]drasîhasa, which representsRajño mahakshatrapasya Rudradâmnaḥ putrasya rajño mahakshatrapasya Rudrasîhasya ;"Of the Raja, the Mahákskatrapa Rudrasiha, the son of the Rája, the Mahakshatrapa Rudradâman."
The chief interest of this coin lies in the exceptional and also very clear way in which the vowel i of síha, i.e. simha, is expressed,running right up into the surrounding circle of dots. The usual rule in coins of this class is to omit such vowels as fall on or above the tops of the letters. In accordance with this custom, we have, in the present legend,maha twice for mahá, the á of the second syllable being omitted altogether;-and rajná twice for rájn; in this latter word, the a of the first syllable is omitted altogether; in the second syllable, the á occurs because it is attached to a ja, and is formed by an upward continuation of the centre stroke of the consonant, instead of a forward continuation of the top of it; the jná would have been converted into jño by a backward continuation of the top of the ja, but this stroke was omitted according to custom.
It is this custom of omitting such vowels as, if engraved, would fall on or above the tops of the letters, that has led to the reading of saha or saha (instead of stha for siha) and sena, as the termination of the names of several of the Kshatrapas, and to the Kshatrapas being so frequently called the 'Sâh' kings.
Two other instances in which the name of the present Kshatrapa Rudrastha occurs very distinctly, are-lines 2-3 of the Gunda inscription, published by Dr. Bühler in this Journal, Vol. X. p. 157; and the Jasdan inscription, re-edited by Dr. Hoernle in this Journal, Vol. XII. p.
32,
